What's up with Steam?

Ok, so most of yall are steam people here, so I have to ask...what's going on? I just downloaded it today and downloaded a game. Figured i'd give this a try. I JUST got my new laptop today...an ASUS B43F, i5-560M, 2GB (will add 4 more with next paycheck) with DirectX10...I went to play the game I installed and nothing happened. A little box temporarily popped up (like, a split second) saying it was launching the game, but nothing happened.

I know I should contact Steam support but I see no use of making a million accounts. Account for Steam, account for forums, account to get support...seriously?

So anyway, if anyone could help me out here, i'd appreciate it. By the way, the game was Transformers: War for Cybertron...still waiting for Team Fortress 2 to download.

Although I don't have this particular game, it isn't uncommon for Steam games to get updated before it will launch even though you just installed it. Some updates are quite large. If you try to start your game and open Steam and go to your library of games, it should show if your game is being updated.

Ah, then it's either the game or my computer, because the game isn't updating. Kind of sucks, since it was a paid for game, but if I can't get it to work today on my own, I guess i'll create a support account before seeing what the refund policy is (I bought this game a week ago before my laptop came in (didn't want to miss out on the 75% off deal).

But hey...Team Fortress 2 works and that's all the matters........even if I do suck at gaming

Steam support will tell you that sometimes you need to 'verify the integrity of the game cache' before starting for the first time.
if you right click on the game in the library or game list, then click properties from the list, click on the 'verify integrity of the game cache'. It takes a minute or two. if any files come up missing or corrupt, it will immediately re-download them.

BTW - the Steam app is actually quite decent. I haven't purchased any of the really old DOS day games to see how well they work, but everything I've ever gotten has worked quite well and self heals pretty well if things go badly. Even some of the complaints people have (like having to be on the internet to play) aren't exactly true anymore if you do a little research or digging around. I was very anti-Steam when it launched and now I'm very pro-Steam... in fact, to the point that I don't want to have to bother with any other game software distribution system. I don't even want to go to the B&Ms to get games anymore.

^ What papa said. The ability to hit a button and download the game with all current updates as many times as you like is terrific, especially if you upgrade a lot, or use mods and they go sideways etc.

well if it were to be the "verify integrity of game cache" thing, that would be a game to game basis. The steam rep said in the email, that "some" games needed to be verified before launching for the first time. Besides, all steam game downloads are not perfect. I found this to be the case with Stalker COP, the game would not start until I did the verified thing. hey. it takes 1-2 mins, cant hurt

This sounds familiar, sometimes I will get this issue with certain games. It usually seems to be that the game partially launched but not properly. You might try looking for the game in the processes tab of the task manager and then ending the games process if it's there. Keep in mind it might be the name of the engine or something weird and that the description section might state the name of the game (Its the section that's furthest to the right in the processes tab in windows 7). If you find it and end it try launching the game again, then checking for it in the processes tab again.

BTW - the Steam app is actually quite decent. I haven't purchased any of the really old DOS day games to see how well they work, but everything I've ever gotten has worked quite well and self heals pretty well if things go badly. Even some of the complaints people have (like having to be on the internet to play) aren't exactly true anymore if you do a little research or digging around. I was very anti-Steam when it launched and now I'm very pro-Steam... in fact, to the point that I don't want to have to bother with any other game software distribution system. I don't even want to go to the B&Ms to get games anymore.

Well, I never got Transformers working, so I jsut said "screw it." But now I can't seem to connect to servers in Team Fortress 2. I was playing with some of yall on the Friday Night Frag Fest and steam crashed...ever since I haven't been able to get on ANY server...but i'm just glad that it has offline player mode so I can still play till I find out what's going on. I swear...i've nothing but trouble with Steam...I don't think it likes me, lol. Maybe it's because it knows I suck at gaming, but I play anyway